Tamil Nadu man found in Bongaon after 11 years

KOLKATA: For years, he roamed the streets around Bongaon, nearly 100km from Kolkata, scavenging from garbage and depending on the kindness of some. He kept to himself till about a year ago when he got into an altercation with some locals out to have some fun at his expense. Finally, he was picked up and admitted to a government hospital and was kept in isolation as a mental patient.
On Thursday, the 47-year-old — who had been missing for 11 years — was finally reunited with his family in Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu — thanks to efforts by amateur radio operators .
West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC) secretary Ambarish Nag Biswas said, “He used to be treated as a mentally-disabled person by locals. They would make fun of him and he would throw stones. A few days ago, we were informed of the matter by the hospital authorities. By then, an elderly nurse at the hospital had gained his confidence. She would give him food and he would speak to her though she couldn’t understand what he said. We requested the nurse to record a part of his conversation and send it to us.”
Biswas circulated the voice recording among amateur radio operators across the country and it was soon identified as a Tamil dialect. By this time, the man had calmed down and started interacting with doctors. WBRC members then asked the hospital superintendent to get him to speak over the phone to a purported relative in Tamil Nadu.
“Manjunath, our friend from Tamil Nadu, posed as the man’s brother at the other end of the line and communicated with him in Tamil. Till then, we weren’t even aware whether he has an elder brother. But the gamble paid off,” Nag Biswas said.
It was found that the man does have an elder brother and provided Manjunath sufficient information to trace the family to Purangarai in Villupuram. His mother lives there with his elder brother who is a truck driver. His mother Misiamalla broke down on receiving information about him. He was married and also had a son till he left home 11 years ago. His wife looked for him for three years and then left for her maternal home near Chennai
The family was in no position to reach Kolkata from the remote village till the WBRC got in touch with the local administration and police. The family was finally booked on a train from Chennai to Howrah and it reached the Bongaon hospital on Thursday.